USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 46
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Mr. Botkin returned to his farm and remained in Iowa for two and a half years, then traded his Iowa farm for land in New Home town-
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ship, Bates county, taking possession of his new tract in the fall of 1869. The Botkin farm is unquestionably one of the best and richest four-hundred-acre tracts in western Missouri, with splendid improve- ments and known as "Maple Grove Farm." The Botkin farm residence is an imposing place of eleven rooms almost completely encircled with wide verandas and sitting in a beautiful grove of large maple trees planted by Mr. Botkin. For some years this fine farm has been in the capable hands of Mr. E. D. Waller, a son-in-law of Mr. Botkin.
On December 5, 1869, the marriage of Isaac Harry Botkin and Miss Emma F. Jones took place and the marriage has been a very happy and prosperous one, blessed with children as follow: Robert Edward, de- ceased, and his remains lie in Foster cemetery; Benjamin V., born in 1875, lives in Spokane, Washington; Mrs. Ina Waller, wife of E. D. Waller, Rich Hill, Missouri. The mother of this family was born Janu- ary 7, 1838, in Culpepper county, Virginia, a daughter of William Edward and Lucretia (Barrack) Jones, the former of whom was born in North Carolina and the latter was a native of Virginia. William E. Jones located in De Kalb county, Missouri, in 1866 and there bought a four- hundred-acre farm which he sold in 1869 and then came to Bates county where he died.
Mr. Botkin has been a Democrat in politics and during his younger days, he took a keen interest in political matters, serving his township as trustee. He and Mrs. Botkin are members of the Foster Baptist church, and Mr. Botkin is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. They retired to a home in Foster, by reason of advancing age on April 4, 1905. When Mr. Botkin moved to Foster the town was infested with saloons. During all of his life he has been a strong temper- ance advocate and he promptly led the fight for the abolition of the saloon from the village and eventually succeeded. Despite threats from the saloon advocates who sent him word to "leave town or be killed" he stayed by his guns and won out in behalf of morality and order. He is still overseeing the cultivation of one hundred thirty-five acres adjoin- ing the city all of which are sown to wheat for the next harvest. For twenty-five years, this aged citizen fed hundreds of cattle and has bought and sold live stock in this section of Missouri for many years.
Despite his great age and the fact that he gave four of the best years of his life to the defense of the Union, during which time he never experienced a sick call and was never wounded, he is still able to manage his own business affairs and his intellect is keen, and his patriotism is
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undimmed-his love of the old flag under which he marched and fought being as great as when in the flower of his young manhood he freely offered his life that the Union might be saved, and would now be on the firing line in Europe fighting in defesne of democracy were he still a young man.
Francis Marion Wheeler, of Howard township, is a "self-made," very successful agriculturist, owner of a quarter section of highly pro- ductive land which has served as his home place since April 8, 1888. Mr. Wheeler was born May 1, 1851, in Schuyler county, Illinois, son of Austin King and Adeline C. (Chipman) Wheeler, natives of Guilford county, North Carolina, members of old Southern families. Austin H. Wheeler was born May 23, 1813, and died in 1901. He was married in North Carolina on May 31, 1838. He was the son of John and Keziah Wheeler. His wife was a daughter of Obadiah H. and Keziah Chip- man. She was born October 22, 1816. Austin Wheeler migrated to Pettis county, Missouri, in 1856, and purchased an improved farm which he later sold and opened a blacksmith's shop. Civil War breaking out, he lost his business and then engaged in farming. When his health failed him in 1878, he came to Bates county, making his home in Sprague, after living at the home of his son, F. M. Wheeler. He died in 1882. He was father of six children: Rensselaer Harris, deceased; Keziah Ann Larue, living in New Mexico; John Henry, deceased; Harriet, died in infancy ; F. M., subject of this review and his twin sister, Mrs. Mary Frances Winston, Rich Hill.
The early life of Francis Marion Wheeler was replete with hard- ships and he obtained but little education. From boyhood he has been self-supporting. When he came to Bates county on March 20, 1878, all that he owned in the world was a good span of mules, a plow, a wagon, a cultivator, and one hundred dollars in money, which money he had carefully saved. The first thing he did upon coming here was to purchase eighty acres of land in Howard township at a cost of five dollars an acre. He broke up thirty acres of this tract and sowed it to wheat, the crop yielding only ten bushels to the acre. He planted a good corn crop which was ruined in August of that year by a hail- storm. His beginning in this county was not auspicious and the out- come of his first year in farming here was not encouraging. But, Mr. Wheeler was made of true pioneer material and he kept at the task of improving his farm and the second year was a better one. Con- tinual good crops, in spite of the ordinary set-backs, of course, have
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made him a well-to-do citizen. His first home, which is still standing on the premises, was a small two-room house, which has been sup- planted by a pretty cottage, erected in 1910. In addition to his fine farm in Bates county, Mr. Wheeler owns a tract of timber land comprising fifty-three acres in Howell county, Missouri.
November 28, 1877, he was married to Miss Phoebe Ferguson Bright, who was born in Saline county, Missouri, September 8, 1854, a daughter of John and Margaret (Grissom) Bright, natives of Vir- ginia and Kentucky, respectively. John Bright made a settlement in Missouri in the early thirties and entered government land. He died in July, 1890, and his wife followed him in death three years later, her death occurring in July, 1893. The following children have been born to Francis Marion and Phoebe Wheeler: Charley, born February 6, 1879, is employed in the Rich Hill lumber yard; Aubrey Blaine, born October 14, 1880, lives in Arkansas; Mrs. Rose Thomas, born Novem- ber 20, 1882, lives at Pittsburg, Kansas; Arthur W., born December 18, 1884, a farmer in Howard township; Burch F., born January 24, 1887, lives in Kansas City; Austin K., born December 22, 1888, makes his home at Rich Hill; Lydia Ann, born February 23, 1891, at home; Francis Marion, Jr., born September 26, 1893, a private in the National Army, stationed at the training camp at Fort Pike, Little Rock, Arkan- sas; Joseph F., born October 4, 1898, at home.
Mr. Wheeler votes the Republican ticket but is not greatly inter- ested in matters which would have a tendency to divert him from his fireside and home interests. He is essentially a home man, one whose family and farm are his first consideration at all times.
James Claude Berry, or "J. C." Berry, extensive farmer, tax col- lector of New Home township, Bates county, was born November 22, 1870, in Saline county, Missouri, a member of an old pioneer family of Missouri. His father was A. M. Berry, a native of Bates county, and his mother was Mary E. (Prewitt) Berry, a native of Jackson county, Missouri. A. M. Berry was born in 1843 and died January 3, 1917, in Oregon, at the time of his death being probably the oldest living pioneer of Bates county. Mary E. Berry was born in 1838 and departed this life in June, 1915. A. M. Berry was born in New Home township, a son of John Berry, a native of Kentucky who settled in Bates county in the early thirties. During the Civil War period, the Berry family left the county and did not return until the war closed. A. M. Berry served in the Confederate army under General Price and
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saw much hard service in Missouri, Arkansas, and the South. After the war, he returned to Saline county and made his home there until his removal in 1883 to Bates county and to Charlotte township, where he lived until 1895, when he removed to Oklahoma. Ten years later, he moved to Oregon and there died. His children were as follow: W. H., Oregon; N. A., living in Kansas; S. A., living in Washington; James Claude, subject of this sketch; and Mrs. Bessie L. Wallace, Oregon.
J. C. Berry was educated in the schools of Saline county and of Bates county. He began doing for himself when nineteen years old and first farmed on his own account in Mt. Pleasant township. He purchased his first farm in New Home township in 1896. He improved the tract and sold it shortly afterward. He then bought a place consisting of one hundred twenty acres, located just north of his present home. He sold forty acres of this tract and the remaining eighty acres are included within his present holdings of two hundred forty acres. His present home place is well improved with a good home, barns, and silo. Mr. Berry is farming and pasturing a total of six hundred acres, in all, and raises and feeds over seventy-five head of cattle yearly.
J. C. Berry was married in 1893 to Lillie Pickett, a daughter of John E. and Maria J. (Lindley) Pickett, who came to Bates county in 1883. That is, the widow and family located in this county at that time, Mr. Pickett having died in Illinois. Mrs. Pickett now makes her home among her children. Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Berry have children, as fol- low : Ruby, Ralph, Grace. Frank, Sina, Lena, Emmet, and Mabel, all at home with their parents.
Mr. Berry is prominent in the affairs of the Democratic party in Bates county and is now serving his second term as tax collector of New Home township. He was first elected to this office in 1915 and re-elected in March, 1917. Mr. and Mrs. Berry and the three oldest children are members of the Baptist church. Mr. Berry is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America at Butler.
Fred Crabb, proprietor of a splendid farm of two hundred acres of Osage township, was born in 1867 in Mason county, Illinois, a son of Willis and Mary (Forsythe) Crabb, former residents of Bates county, who have the unique distinction of holding the record for long marriages in Missouri and probably the United States. Willis Crabb was born January 7, 1823, in Greene county, Illinois, son of Edward and Eliza- beth Crabb, pioneer settlers of Greene county, Illinois. Willis Crabb
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was reared in his native state and brought up on a pioneer farm. He made a settlement in Bates county, Missouri, in 1884. Prior to this year, in 1879, he came to this county and purchased a tract of land. Land was cheap and plentiful in those days in Bates county and there were not many permanent farmers in the southern part of Bates county. Much of the land was open prairie but the deep rich soil was awaiting the touch of the husbandman to transform its appearance and furnish a place upon which to build homes. Willis Crabb was very fortunate in his first venture in this county. He had broken up sixty acres of his land and had it sown to wheat which yielded a fine crop and brought the large sum of two dollars twenty-five cents per bushel. He sold his wheat crop, or rather his share of it, for enough to pay for his land. He made a permanent settlement in Osage township in 1884 and erected excel- lent improvements upon his farm. He resided on the home place until 1900 and then moved to Rich Hill. He resided in Rich Hill until the fall of 1917 and then removed to Springfield, Missouri, where he is now living and enjoying life at the great age of ninety-five years.
The marriage of Willis Crabb and Mary Forsythe, born in Illinois in 1829, occurred in 1848, and was blessed with children as follow: Mrs. Fannie Cunningham, living in Chicago; John, a resident of Los Angeles; Lott, a railroad man who was killed in California, while engaged in his regular occupation ; William, connected with the Farmers Bank of Rich Hill; Edith, wife of Charles Faylor, residing in Howard township ; Rachel and Ida, residing in Springfield, Missouri; Fred Crabb, subject of this review; Florence, wife of C. C. McGinness, Howard township; and Mrs. Gussie Noble, Springfield, Missouri.
February 14, 1918, Mr. and Mrs. Crabb celebrated their Seventieth Wedding Anniversary at their home in Springfield. The event attracted widespread attention because of the fact that the anniversary was a unique one in point of years of continuous married life, which the aged couple have enjoyed. Both are well past the allotted span of life, are well, hearty, and in full possession of their faculties. Seventy years seems a long, long time as years come and go and Mr. and Mrs. Crabb probably hold the record for Missouri in having attained to such great longevity and having been married for such a length of time. Many wonderful changes have taken place in their life-time and it is given to but few people to reside on earth for such a period. They enjoy the respect and esteem of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. Mr. Crabb was one of Bates county's best citizens.
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Fred Crabb was a sturdy youth of seventeen years, when the family settled in Bates county and he was well able and willing to perform a man's work. He received his public school education in Illinois and also attended the Rich Hill High School, after coming to Bates county. He has resided constantly in Bates county since 1884 with the exception of three years in Illinois, from 1896 to 1898, inclusive. He then returned to this county and in 1899 purchased the Crabb home place and is owner of two hundred acres of land at the present time. Mr. Crabb is engaged in general farming and stock raising and is one of the successful agri- culturists of Bates county. He was married in 1895 to Rachel Stickle, of Rich Hill, a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Stickle, who were born in Austria and immigrated to this country and settled in Rich Hill. Eleven children have been born to Fred and Rachel Crabb, as follow: Mary, a teacher in the Howard township public schools; Joseph Daniel, an enlisted man in the United States Navy; Willis, deceased; Frances, a teacher in the public schools of Osage township; Edith and Florence, students in the Rich Hill High School; Charles, Virgil, and Gussie, attending the district school; Margaret, aged four years; and Alma, aged one year.
Politically, Mr. Crabb is aligned with the Democratic party and has filled the office of township trustee. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Crabb is a genial, whole-souled citizen, who is well liked by his neighbors and friends and is looked upon as a progressive Bates county citizen.
Frank U. Mathers, assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Adrian, Missouri, is one of the young citizens of Bates county who are widely and favorably known as industrious, enterprising, successful men. Mr. Mathers is one of Bates county's own sons. He was born in 1890, a son of J. W. and Anna Mathers, who came to Missouri from Indiana in 1883 and located at Adrian, where J. W. Mathers was engaged in the mercantile business for more than twenty-five years. He died in 1917 and the widowed mother makes her home at Adrian and with her reside her son, Frank U., and his wife. J. W. Mathers was a well- known and well-to-do merchant and at the time of his death was the owner of considerable property in Adrian, including his residence and his business establishment.
Mr. Mathers, whose name introduces this review, is a graduate the Adrian High School and a former student of the Warrensburg State Normal School, which latter institution he attended two years. He
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also completed a course of study at the Central Business College, Kansas City, Missouri, after which he was employed for six years by the Warnken Dry Goods Company. Mr. Mathers resigned his posi- tion with this company to accept the assistant cashiership of the First National Bank of Adrian, Missouri, which place he is capably filling at the time of this writing in 1918. He graduated from the Adrian High School in the class of 1906.
November 20, 1916, Frank U. Mathers and Lola Porter were united in marriage. Lola (Porter) Mathers is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Porter, of Adrian, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Mathers reside at Adrian with Mr. Mathers' mother. He is a stockholder as well as an official of the First National Bank of Adrian. Both Mr. and Mrs. Mathers richly merit and possess the warm regard of a host of friends in Adrian and in Bates county.
James T. Ackerman .- Hard work and rigid economy was the pro- gram for the early life of James T. Ackerman, well-to-do farmer and stockman of Howard township. The Ackerman farm was purchased by its proprietor during the winter of 1871. Mr. Ackerman made his first investment in Bates county land when the ground was covered with snow to a depth of nearly two feet but has never regretted his purchase. His first quarter section cost him ten dollars an acre-unbroken prairie land which he fenced and improved. The farm now consists of four hundred acres of rich, valuable soil which produces bountiful crops each year. His handsome home stands on a commanding knoll which affords a view of the surrounding country for miles in every direction, the rich bottom land lying about the farm buildings on all sides. During his residence of forty-seven years in Bates county, Mr. Ackerman has never purchased any flour, the farm producing his needs each year. He has sown one hundred acres to wheat for next year's harvest. During the past year he harvested ninety acres of corn which yielded an average of forty bushels to the acre; forty acres of oats which produced forty bushels to the acre. At the present time (December, 1917) he is feed- ing seventy-five head of cattle and thirty hogs and keeps ten horses and mules to do the farm work. Mr. Ackerman has expended over fifteen thousand dollars for improvements on his farm and it is his proud boast that he "owes no man a dollar." The farm is equipped with nat- ural gas obtained from a well drilled in 1912 to a depth of two hundred eighty-six feet.
James T. Ackerman was born at Salem, Forsythe county, North
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JAMES T. ACKERMAN AND WIFE.
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Carolina, January 13, 1850, a son of William and Jeanette (Spock) Ackerman. William Ackerman was a son of John Ackerman who emi- grated from Germany to America when a young man and settled in North Carolina. The Ackerman family came to Missouri in 1868 and resided at Montserrat, in Johnson county for a period of fifteen years, then removed to Warrensburg. When James T. Ackerman came to Bates county in 1881 the father accompanied him and he cared for him until the end of his days, the father dying in 1911 at the age of eighty- three years. The mother departed this life in 1858. While a resident of Montserrat, James T. Ackerman worked as a section hand on the rail- road and drove a team for the coal mines for a period of eleven years at a wage of one dollar and fifty cents per day. During this time he carried the burden of supporting and rearing his father's family but managed to save money each year. He was never averse to earning an honest dollar aside from his regular employment and managed to earn a good many extra dollars which he carefully saved. Opportunities for loaning money at 10 per cent. interest were plentiful in those days and he increased his hoard by doing this. It was and has always been his contention, that it matters not what a man earns, "it is what he saves that counts in the end." When he had accumulated a total of one thou- sand six hundred dollars, he said one day to his wife, "I guess I'll go and buy me a home." This he did in Bates county where he now ranks as one of the oldest of the pioneer settlers and one of the most substan- tial and best respected of his section.
The marriage of James T. Ackerman and Lesta Stultz took place on October 18, 1874 and has been blessed with the following children : Minnie, wife of J. P. Adams, assistant cashier of the Bank of Hume, Hume, Missouri; Arthur, born in 1877, resides on one of his father's farms, married Lola Liggett, and has four children: Vivita, Oscar, Golden and A. J .; Alfred, born in 1879, lives at El Dorado, Kansas; Cleveland, born 1885, United States railway mail clerk since 1905, and resides at Kansas City, Missouri. The mother of these children was born in 1853 in North Carolina, first came to Indiana in 1865 and came to Montserrat, Johnson county, Missouri with her parents, Elisha and Matilda Stultz, in 1866.
The Democratic party has always had the steadfast allegiance of Mr. Ackerman and he has generally voted the straight Democratic ticket. He has never had any time for political matters and has never cared for nor ever sought political office. He and Mrs. Ackerman are
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members of the Presbyterian church. He is a genial, kindly, shrewd, and capable citizen whose word is considered as good as his bond, one who has found Bates county a profitable and a good place in which to live and rear a family. Mr. Ackerman's unswerving loyalty to Bates county is inspiring and he is certain that there is no better plat of ground in America than this county.
Clarence C. Swarens, a leading citizen of New Home township, pro- prietor of a splendid farm of one hundred thirty acres, candidate for the nomination for the office of clerk of the circuit court of Bates county, is one of the best-known of the second generation of Bates county's citizens. Mr. Swarens was born in Sangamon county, Illinois, August 9, 1867, a son of John and Ann (Ray) Swarens, who migrated from Illinois to Bates county, Missouri, in 1882 and made a permanent settle- ment in New Home township, where they reared a fine family. For further information regarding the parents of C. C. Swarens, the reader is referred to the biography of Frank R. Swarens, brother of the sub- ject of this review.
Mr. Swarens attended the public schools of Springfield, Illinois, and completed the prescribed course in the Springfield public schools at the early age of twelve years. After studying for one year in the Springfield High School, he spent one year in Business College. He accompanied his parents to Bates county and assisted his father in the operation of the home farm during his boyhood days. As early as 1892. he engaged in the profession of teaching and successfully taught in the public schools in Bates county and Texas for twenty or more terms. During 1892 and 1893 he pursued the study of law at the Uni- versity of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, and graduated from the law depart- ment of the university. Following his graduation, being admitted to the bar, he went to Houston, Texas, and practiced law for one year in that city. He then taught school near Houston for some time.
Following his teaching experience in Texas, he was employed as chief night clerk in the Houston postoffice for a period of three years. He then returned to Bates county in 1898 and has since resided here, with the exception of one year (1915) spent as clerk in the mailing department of the Kansas City postoffice. Mr. Swarens, having been born and brought up on a farm, is an excellent farmer, progressive in his agricultural methods. The Swarens place in New Home town- ship is one of the most attractive in Bates county and is well equipped with a handsome farm residence and good buildings.
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Mr. Swarens was married on February 3, 1895, to Miss Lizzie Thomas, born in New Home township, March 6, 1876, a daugliter of James P. Thomas, the patriarch of New Home township, one of the oldest of the Bates county pioneers, concerning whose career an extended review is given elsewhere in this volume. Two children have been born to Clarence C. and Lizzie Swarens: Goldie, born August 14, 1897; and Lewis, born April 5, 1901. Goldie Swarens was married February 5, 1916, to Eugene Casebolt, of Warrensburg, Missouri.
The Democratic party has had the unswerving allegiance of Mr. Swarens at all times and he has been prominent in the affairs of his party in Bates county for a number of years. He has served as central committeeman for his township and has generally been active in the support of his party's activities and policies. He is one of the best- known of the leaders of the Democracy in Bates county and at the present writing ( March, 1918) is a candidate for the nomination for clerk of the circuit court at the August primaries. The candidacy of Mr. Swarens for this office has met with considerable encouragement and it is universally conceded that he is equipped educationally and mentally. and possesses ability above the average to enable him to perform the duties of the office sought. He is popular with all classes and is deserving of the support of his fellow citizens for the office. Mr. Swarens is a member of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Mr. and Mrs. Swarens take an active part in the social life of their neighborhood and are well esteemed in their home neighborhood.
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